


From Space to the Depths of the Oceans

by VeryBerryMari



Category: Free!
Genre: Adventure, Gen, M/M, Mecha, Romance, Water, let's see if I can make this sports anime into something sciency and mecha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-09
Updated: 2014-08-09
Packaged: 2018-02-12 10:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2106486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryBerryMari/pseuds/VeryBerryMari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruka Nanase committed himself to become a MECH pilot in order to find water and fight off those who also want water.  Water is all he believes he needs; it makes accepts him, embraces him, and makes him feel alive, but his life is filled upside down after he meets the green eyed teen named Makoto?</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Space to the Depths of the Oceans

The deafening sound of metal grinding against metal ripped through the air as sirens screeched warnings of failing systems to the dark-haired pilot.

_Damn,_ the pilot thought, as red warning signs painted the chamber red. His fingers rapidly pushed buttons and pulled levers before the whole machine rattled, causing the pilot’s head to snap back into his chair.

“Come in, Officer Nanase, come in! Can you regis-“

“Surprise attack from enemy. MECH damaged in left leg but I can handle this,” Officer Haruka Nanase swiftly responded as he maneuvered his sleek white robot to evade incoming attacks from bulky looking robots. In the right hand of his robot, a neon blue laser formed into a sword that swiftly cut the enemy robots in half.

In the aftermath, explosions erupted as the snarky voice spoke up, “Looks like it for _now_. Sending back up now to your current location, so _do not_ move Nanase.”

A grab, punch, stab.

“Do you copy, Nanase?  No wandering, or else you will get yourself in this kind of mess again.”

A dodge, a hit, sirens.

“Haru!”

Haruka rolled his eyes as he pulled the controller downwards.  He could see his captain’s raised eyebrows and sharky teeth smirk.

“…Yes, sir.” 

A huff echoed from his earpiece before the disgruntled voice mumbled, “Geez, why did you wander so _fucking far from the group!_   Oh right, ‘I only do free,” my ass.” 

A yellow warning flashed on Nanase’s screen.

“Captain,” a husky voice interrupted over the communication airways, “there is an unusual signal of energy where Nanase is, and it is building up explosively fast.  He can’t stay in that area or he will be impacted.”

Nanase barely was able to maneuver away from impeding debris before engaging with another enemy’s arm.

“ _Fuck_ , you are right next to the source!  Use your thrusters to blow through the crowd.  You have about twenty seconds.”

His blue eyes scanned his screens before he bit his lower lip.  Another body of metal impacted, jarring his whole robot, making him grunt in pain.

“Har-“ 

Communications cut to static as his screens flickered out as collision after collision rammed into his battered robot. He quickly switched on the open-view option, which provided a narrow view of open space.  Pulling his controller forward, he attempted to propel forward but a strong force restrained his movements. 

Ignoring the cautions signs of overheating, Nanase quickly switched to higher power output and manual assist, slowly pulling away from the magnetic force.  Sweat dripped into his eye as he grunted to break free from the entanglement.

Suddenly, he jerked forward as he felt the nuclear-like impact from behind before being thrust backward. Air was knocked out of his lungs as the whole world began to spin.  Blinking rapidly, he tried to regain his breath and control. 

Pain flashed red in his eyes and he knew no more.

\---

“… and that was the last I heard or seen him. The signal zapped out when a large wormhole formed where he was combatting.” 

Across from the redheaded man speaking, a woman with pink hair that was greying at the edges of her temples made a note on a tablet. 

His hand rubbed his tired red eyes, “It looked like he was attempting to leave, but I guess his MECH was too damaged to properly function the thrusters.  Hell, even with properly functioning thrusters, I don’t think anyone would have a good chance to survive that monstrosity.   It was too sudden and had too much electromagnetic force that disturbs electrical signals, so I’m impressed that he managed to _even_ get the thrusters to function that quickly.  Ha, but that is Nanase for ya…”

Silence filled the air as the muscular redhead took time to clear his throat and lick his lips.   The device next to the female inspector hummed as it shimmered red.

“…If I had only been sterner to make sure that Haru listens to my command, maybe this incident wouldn’t have happened, and maybe Haru would be okay,” his voiced cracked out.

Clearing his throat again, the inspector handed a flask that was in her jacket to him to which he took a swift drink of. 

“Thanks,” he replied as he handed it back to her. She swiped through some pages on her tablet and commented, “Officer Nanase has records of being highly adept in maneuvering the MECH, but appears to a rather free-spirit.”

The man nodded and provided a small smirk. “Hell, he probably is one of the best MECH fighters we have, even though he does goes ‘freestyle’ on a lot of the missions.  Though, he does not seem like he is all there.  Like he is going through the motions.  Then again, he only really looked alive when he was around water, not that I blame him for that, since the calling to water is in our species’ blood.”

The female inspector hummed in agreement as the man scratched his head.

“Seriously, he would dive into any body of water as long as it can _at least_ fill up a regular size bathtub.  Not that he would horde water to do that, especially with how water is scarce these days,” he glanced up at her to emphasize his last point.  She pointed look back at him to continue to which he obliged.

“His obsession for water might have been the reason why he joined the MECH unit and the war, which is, thanks to the universe, _great_ , since he is an amazing addition.  He has a natural knack for MECH combat and has good senses to locate any sources of water. Actually, I think he was over in that area of debris, so far away from where the rest of the platoon, because he sensed some large amount of water.”

She tapped at the tablet quickly at that remark.  

Ruffling his red hair, he sighed before continuing, “While his skills are amazing, he is a hard person to deal with cause he is just stoic and stubborn.  He does not listen to commands in battle, which is _fucking_ annoying since he does not stick to the strategy that was discussed, but he does accomplish the mission’s objective, so he is fairly loyal in his own way.” 

He crossed his arms, “I have discussed this issue with him personally, but all he ever retorts is that he only does free. I let it go on some occasions, knowing that it is out of protocol, but he does help finish the mission rather quickly with few causalities on our side.  Lieutenant Sousuke, however, does not agree with my decision at times, so Haru and him butt heads at times, but never too bad.”

She hummed as she tapped at her tablet. Looking back up at the dark haired captain, she smiled, making the few scales that speckled around her eyes shimmer in the light, “Thank you for your time and the information that you provided. We will research the wormhole to locate Officer Haruka Nanase and will contact you if we require or have any information regarding this incident.”

She touched the device that glowed red to turn it off before pocketing it.  Tucking her pink hair behind her ear, “We sincerely hope for the best for Officer Nanase’s wellbeing.  Do you have any questions before dismissal?” 

The chair creaked as the man leaned forward, placing his hands on the steel table as he snarled to reveal his sharp teeth, “Are there any speculations that this was a _trap_ set up by those _fucking_ humans? It has been oddly quiet from them recently, especially with those losses they had.”

Clearing her throat, her stern voice commented, “It is a possibility but it is too early to state that is the conclusion.”

Abruptly standing up, making a loud clang as the chair he sat in clattered across the floor. 

“Right.  Contact me if anything comes up,” as he turned around to walk to the door. The lady straightened the slightly skewed table, “I see you still have anger issues.  Please direct your anger to those who ignite it instead of this lovely table.”

He snarled at that retort before swinging the door open. 

As she watched him open the door, she commented, “Thank you again for your cooperation, Captain Matsuoka, and thank you for your contribution to our cause.”

He waved his hand behind as the door slammed shut.

Throbbing pain woke him up to a blinking screens showing error and his health.  He blinked at the screen, scanning his health status to find only a few cuts, bruises, and a fractured wrist. 

_Might not be fully accurate with that many errors._ He physically inspected his body at the best of his abilities and limited movement, he did discover that yes he did fracture his left wrist and he has a cut on his left cheek, nose, and right calf.   Given how much pain he was feeling, he was glad that his suit was still functioning to give morphine to numb the pain. 

Grunting, he pressed a button on his helmet to provide him the air before he ejected the lid of the MECH.  As the lid flew off, he was greeted by bright sunlight and a clear blue sky.  He inspected the area to find that he was on a rough, forest terrain.  Finding nothing threatening, he jumped out of the wrecked MECH before covering it as best as he could with the fallen branches. 

_If there are plants, then I must be on a Salvation Ground, hopefully, it will be ours too._ Wandering carefully through the trees, he found a stone path and started to follow that down. 

In the distance, he heard laughter of children and splashes and _running water?_

_Water!_  

Wanting to sprint towards the sound at hopes of diving into water, he had to restrain himself and to remember his training. Stealthily he walked past a deserted house and through a hole in a wooden fence.  The sight before him was two children, a boy and a girl, giggling as they chased each other around a very tall man with green eyes who was filling a tube with _water._

_Splash!_

_Forget training, I’m going to live in the moment,_ thought the blue-eyed male as he sighed into the wet embrace of oh-glorious water.

**Author's Note:**

> So I hoped you liked it! I feel like trying this kind of genre with Free! is a bit of a stretch, but I'll see if I can make it work!   
> The next chapter should be up either next week or the week after that!


End file.
